


Day 340

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [340]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:00:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27927142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Relationships: Merrill/Noll, Merrill/OC
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [340]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 2





	Day 340

Since arriving in Kirkwall four years ago, there had been many times Merrill had considered getting shoes with soles in the human style. Sometimes the cobblestones would crack into jaged shards and other times someone would spill something sticky and then Merrill would step in it and by the time she got home there was a layer of pebbles stuck to her feet. But never had she wished for proper boots like Isabella used to wear more than now when she was making her way through the sewers under the undercity. She could feel things she would rather not contemplate squishing between her toes with every step.

She knew she should be focused on rescuing Noll. If Merrill was in danger they would be like an arrow, never veering from their target until Merrill was safe. Except when an arrow had to go a long way it did eventually get pulled towards the ground. So maybe not like an arrow. Maybe like a bolt of magical energy fired from a staff. But that was the furthest thing from important right now. 

Sketch had turned up just before midnight looking absolutely horrid. Noll had been taken by a group of evil blood mages hiding out in Darktown. It was important not to leave off the evil part, though most people did. Blood magic was perfectly fine if you used it properly. When blood was only a fuel for magical power it wasn’t really all that different then lyrium. Except that it was red and not blue. Except for that strange lyrium she and Hawke had found in the Deep Roads -- that was red.

NOT IMPORTANT!!!

Noll was important and they were in danger. They might have had their mind taken by the mages or they might be a prisoner. The resolutionists might be preparing a blood ritual where they would sacrifice Noll to summon demons or to power their spells. Merrill and the others might already be too late but she couldn’t think about that or she would be a complete mess. Like everything else in her life. She could never seem to keep anything orderly. She was always leaving things in strange places and forgetting she had done it. Noll was very good at remembering where she put things which was silly since Merrill was the one putting things places. What would she do without Noll. She would never find anything!

“Hold here,” Hawk said. Merrill’s attention snapped back to the present for a moment, and she stopped short. They were approaching the part of the sewer where Sketch had encountered the mages. There was supposedly a blood thrall on watch here that would blow their cover if they made their move too early. Aveline and her guards, and Cullen and his templars were creating a barrier above them to keep the mages from escaping. Merrill hoped she could get to Noll before the mages made them attack anyone. They could outfight most people but Merrill doubted even they could kill Aveline and she would not hold back if she were protecting her guards.

Merrill could feel all the magical energy being sucked from the area. It was a terrible feeling that chilled her to her very core. Her mana reserves vanished but Merrill did not need them for what she was about to do. That was the signal from the templars that they were moving in and Merrill and the other charged the grate.

Hawke downed a lyrium potion, replenishing his mana but Merrill lifted her knife to her forearm instead. Regular magic would not be useful here anyway. A human sprung from the muck and shrieked a warning to her captors. Merrill sliced her arm, calling forth blood to counter that used to bend the woman’s mind.

The woman staggered, dazed by the sudden return of her will. Merrill ignored her and called forth roots from the earth to launch her up the hole and through the grate faster then she could have climbed. There were three mages there, and two others. Merrill was already bleeding and it was simple to simply direct the blood towards the thralls to break their bonds.

The first mage sent a stonefist into Merrill’s back and she went tumbling head over heels across the room and hit the wall. The other two mages began gathering energy for powerful spells. But they weren’t ready for Hawke. He shot out of the hole right behind Merrill and detonated a fireball in the center of the mages sending them flying in all directions.

Merrill got shakily to her feet and hit the mages with chain lightning, that spasmed their muscles so that they could not get their feet back under them. Hawke buried the group under a wall of ice that pierced their flesh and crushed their bones. More mages were rushing towards the sewer exit now, trying to escape the templars above. They pushed forwards with such frenzy that they forced Hawke and Merrill to opposite sides of the room. There were some guards below, in the sewers ready to halt them but they would not be able to stand against so many. If Merrill and Hawke didn’t thin their numbers, the bulk of these mages would escape. Fortunately, the smallness of the sewer exit meant that only a few could pass through at a time. Unfortunately, with nowhere to go, many of the mages turned their attention to Hawke and Merrill.

Hawke called fire down from the sky and Merrill added a lightning storm. The result was a panicked room full of mages with no escape. It was inevitable that some of them started to twist into abominations. This only added to the chaos as the monsters attacked everyone indiscriminately.

A few of the mages tried to send their remaining thralls in to clear a path for them to escape but most of them were cut down by the abominations or caught in the electrical firestorm. Merrill saw one still wearing the uniform of the guards and encased her in stone. It would stop her from attacking and hopefully make her less of a target until Merrill could free her mind. She searched the group for Noll but couldn’t see them.

Merrill has always admired Noll’s ability to remain unseen. They could be in a featureless field, and as long as there was a foot of grass, they could cross it without anyone being the wiser. It was still a shock when they buried two daggers in Merrill’s back.

Noll had a pair of daggers made from Paragon’s Luster, usually poisoned, and enchanted with elemental runes to deal more damage. These ones they had left in Sketch so fortunately the ones digging into Merrill were plain iron, if incredibly sharp. Merrill had been stabbed before, and burned, and mauled and frozen and drained by entropic energy, so she was able to think and act through the pain. She called forth the blood from her new wounds to try to break Noll’s mind free from the domination. Unlike the other times, Merrill couldn’t simply dispel the magic. There was a blood-trail through the air leading to one of the resolutionists. The woman was maintaining a very active link, Merrill would have to deal with her before saving Noll.

Time seemed to slow for Merrill. There was so much going on at once right now and she couldn’t tune any of it out. The fire and electricity filled the room with noise that drowned out the screams of the mages and made the room unbearably hot. Every moment, more mages succumbed to their fear and rage, becoming abominations. The surviving resolutionists were under the suppression of the templars and relying entirely on blood magic to fuel their spells, not a one of them was uncut. The remaining blood thralls hacked at everything between their masters and the hole in the floor. And Noll was trying their very best to finish Merrill off.

Time sped back up as Merrill launched into action. She threw up a mind blast out, knocking Noll away from her and, more importantly, blasted the trail of blood back towards Noll’s handler. She gathered the blood to herself but was his by a stray lightning bolt in the meantime. The electricity arched from the mage and through the blood she had gathered, passing through the resolutionist several times before going to ground. Merrill followed up with a stonefist that sent her opponent into the path of a blood-thrall who hacked into the woman’s collarbone with an axe.

Noll was on their feet again and charging straight for Merrill. Merrill drew as much blood as she could from the fleeing mages, not a difficult task when they had all already made the cuts for her. With a deep guttural scream Merrill hadn’t known was inside her, she burned through the blood and broke the bonds of all the blood-thralls present. Many were killed as soon as the woke but a few, including Noll, managed to get clear of the abominations.

The mages Merrill had robbed of their blood, those that still lived, were paralyzed from the pain of what Merrill had done to them and they fell quickly to abomination claws. Merrill hopped Hawke could deal with the possessed mages. She had used quite a lot of her own blood to fuel her magic and felt lightheaded. She collapsed but Noll was there to catch her holding her tight in their arms.

“I knew you would come for me,” they whispered. “I knew you would save me. Now it’s my turn.”

Merrill’s vision darkened as she felt herself passing out. The last thing she saw was Noll, daggers a blur of motion, fending off three abominations at once.


End file.
